Rachel Thomas, MD, PhD

Rachel Thomas, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist in the Neurocritical Care Program and an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Barrow Neurological Institute. She is board certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. Thomas’ clinical practice centers on the care of individuals with life-threatening neurological conditions. She is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, the International Initiative for Traumatic Brain Injury Research, the National Neurotrauma Society, the Neurocritical Care Society, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Thomas earned both her Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience degrees from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She completed both her neurology residency and a neurocritical care fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Thomas applies her biochemistry background to characterizing the neurochemical and electrophysiologic mechanisms governing secondary injury in traumatic brain injury, with the goal of translating the findings to her clinical practice. In addition to ongoing protein biomarker and neuroimaging research with TRACK-TBI and Penn Medicine’s TBI Research Initiative (TBIRI), her primary research focus is related to multimodal neuromonitoring in the Intensive Care Unit. Specifically, she seeks to better understand the role of spreading depolarizations (SDs) as a promising pathophysiologic target for therapies aimed at limiting secondary brain injury, especially within the context of their relationship with cerebral autoregulation and their contribution to metabolic crises.